Students Return

Students Return

Questions Remain

By BRUCE SLOANE

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

“Students are resuming their normal routines at Rappahannock County Elementary School,” reported School Superintendent David M. Gangel earlier this week.

Two weeks ago fumes from a cleaning fluid that workers of the John T. Morgan Roofing Company were using to clean windows sent 39 students to hospitals in Warrenton and Culpeper. The workers were cleaning up residue from a roofing project at the school.

“To my knowledge, no one is hospitalized,” Dr. Gangel added. “A few children with asthma or other respiatory problems may still be under treatment, but I have no way of knowing if this is connected to the roofing incident. I’m not a doctor."

Dr. Gangel said he feels that students were not unusually concerned or upset over the incident. Counselors were available at school last week to talk with any worried students, but few took advantage of this service.

Identification of the specific substances contained in the cleaning fluid has not yet been received. In last week’s Rappahannock News it was reported that the fluid contained gasoline and toluene, but this has not been positively confirmed.

“We’re pretty sure it contained gasoline,” said Dr. Gangel. “We’ve asked OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] regulators to look into the incident.”

The school will act as a clearing house for the collection of relevant medical bills, said Dr. Gangel. He is asking anyone who thinks they will receive a medical bill to call his secretary, Ms. Jeanie Dwyer, at 987-8773 by June 3, so they will have as complete a list as possible.

When medical bills are received, parents are asked to send copies of them to assistant superintendent Robert Chappell, Rappahannock County School Board Office, P.O. Box 273, Sperryville, VA 22740.

Mr. Chappell will send the bill to the Morgan Company, and send confirmation of the mailing to the parents.

See Fumes, Page A-6